scholarly journals Top-down causation and emergence: some comments on mechanisms

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
George F. R. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Causal Power ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Information Control ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Adaptive Selection ◽  
Abstract Entities ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Medical Healthcare

Both bottom-up and top-down causation occur in the hierarchy of structure and causation. A key feature is multiple realizability of higher level functions, and consequent existence of equivalence classes of lower level variables that correspond to the same higher level state. Five essentially different classes of top-down influence can be identified, and their existence demonstrated by many real-world examples. They are: algorithmic top-down causation; top-down causation via non-adaptive information control, top-down causation via adaptive selection, top-down causation via adaptive information control and intelligent top-down causation (the effect of the human mind on the physical world). Through the mind, abstract entities such as mathematical structures have causal power. The causal slack enabling top-down action to take place lies in the structuring of the system so as to attain higher level functions; in the way the nature of lower level elements is changed by context, and in micro-indeterminism combined with adaptive selection. Understanding top-down causation can have important effects on society. Two cases will be mentioned: medical/healthcare issues, and education—in particular, teaching reading and writing. In both cases, an ongoing battle between bottom-up and top-down approaches has important consequences for society.

scholarly journals Our Varying Histories and Future Potential: Models and Maps in Science, the Humanities, and in Music Theory

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Narmour
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Music Cognition ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Parent Organization ◽  
Musical Knowledge ◽  
Future Potential ◽  
Intellectual Potential

part 1 briefly recounts the influence of social unrest and the explosion of knowledge in both psychology and the humanities circa 1970-1990. As the sciences rely on explicit top-down theories connected to bottom-up maps and models, and whereas the humanities build on bottom-up differences within malleable top-down “theories” (approaches, themes, theses, programs, methods, etc.), the changes in the sciences during this period contrasted sharply with the changes in the humanities. Part 2 discusses in detail how these two social transformations affected the histories of music theory and cognitive music theory. The former fractiously withdrew from its parent organization (AMS), whereas the latter was welcomed into SMPC. Inasmuch as both music theory and cognitive music theory rely on maps and models, Part 3 examines the metatheoretical importance of these terms for music cognition, music theory, and cognitive music theory. Part 4 speculates about the future—how music cognition, cognitive music theory, and music theory contribute to the structure of musical knowledge. The intellectual potential of this unique triadic collaboration is discussed: psychology provides a commanding empirical framework of the human mind, while music theory and cognitive music theory logically model moment-to-moment temporal emotions and the auditory intellections at the core of musical art.

scholarly journals Downward causation by information control in micro-organisms

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luc Jaeger ◽  
Erin R. Calkins
Keyword(s):  
Operating System ◽  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Functional Equivalence ◽  
Information Control ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Adaptive Selection ◽  
Feedback Information ◽  
Protein World ◽  
Micro Organisms

The concepts of functional equivalence classes and information control in living systems are useful to characterize downward (or top-down) causation by feedback information control in synthetic biology. Herein, we re-analyse published experiments of microbiology and synthetic biology that demonstrate the existence of several classes of functional equivalence in microbial organisms. Classes of functional equivalence from the bacterial operating system, which processes and controls the information encoded in the genome, can readily be interpreted as strong evidence, if not demonstration, of top-down causation (TDC) by information control. The proposed biological framework reveals how this type of causality is put in action in the cellular operating system. Considerations on TDC by information control and adaptive selection can be useful for synthetic biology by delineating the irreducible set of properties that characterizes living systems. Through a ‘retro-synthetic’ biology approach, these considerations could contribute to identifying the constraints behind the emergence of molecular complexity during the evolution of an ancient RNA/peptide world into a modern DNA/RNA/protein world. In conclusion, we propose TDCs by information control and adaptive selection as the two types of downward causality absolutely necessary for life.

MIND AND MATTER IN THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Davis
Keyword(s):  
Living Organism ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Body ◽  
Previous Night ◽  
Material World ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Physical Laws

In chapter 8 of Dorian Gray, Dorian reflects on the terrifying discovery, which he has made the previous night, that the painting has been somehow altered to express his own moral state. He speculates thus on a possible explanation for the change in the picture: Was there some subtle affinity between the chemical atoms, that shaped themselves into form and colour on the canvas, and the soul that was within him? Could it be that what that soul thought, they realized? – that what it dreamed, they made true? (Wilde 93) At the end of the chapter, he thinks along similar lines: Might there not be some curious scientific reason for it all? If thought could exercise its influence upon a living organism, might not thought exercise an influence upon dead and inorganic things? Nay, without thought or conscious desire, might not things external to ourselves vibrate in unison with our moods and passions, atom calling to atom in secret love or strange affinity? (103) Wilde's references to “atoms” encapsulate something of the complexity and paradox which characterise the novel's representations of the mind and its connection with the body. Atoms make up the painting and Dorian's own body, and this reminder of the materiality of both reminds us, in turn, of the possibility that Dorian, and all human selves, may occupy an insignificant yet inescapable place in the wider processes of the physical world. Most pervasively in the novel, and in the fin de siècle more generally, anxieties about one such material process – that of evolution, and especially of degeneration – haunt representations of the self. In Dorian's thoughts about “atoms” lies the still more extreme possibility that the very distinction between organic and inorganic may be blurred, a vertiginous sense that human evolutionary kinship extends beyond even the simplest organisms to matter itself, and that the category of the human is thus under greater threat than ever in the light of scientific theories of the material world. At the same time, the questions that Dorian asks himself envisage not the reduction of the mind to matter but the near-opposite of this: the possibility that “thought” may somehow “influence” the matter of the painting. In a fantastical version of the Hegelian idealism which forms an important part of Wilde's philosophical position, the mind may prove to be the ultimate reality, independent of and dominant over matter, as the state of Dorian's mind is mysteriously given sensuous form in the transformations which the painting undergoes. The atoms of the painting, like the human mind, take on an ambiguous relationship to the material world. The atoms are not fixed but fluid; like the mind itself, they are material and yet seem to act in ways contrary to physical laws of cause and effect, always in process and resistant to external comprehension.

A study on the ontology building methodology for diseases of mind diagnosis

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyeongi Baek ◽  
Mun Koo Kang
Keyword(s):  
Medical History ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Affective Characteristics ◽  
Higher Rank ◽  
The Mind

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to construct a mind counseling ontology to efficiently facilitate the diagnosis of the diseases of mind. To determine the structure of mind counseling ontology, this study conducted analysis on structural forms available in counseling books and other related fields and adopted essential ones in the explanation of counseling. The processing of the diseases of mind was divided into three stages: cause, symptoms and counseling. The stages were analyzed one by one in terms of process, functional elements and relevant technique necessary at each stage. Design/methodology/approach – In the mind counseling list, there are 12 different diagnoses of diseases of mind that are classified into four classes. Thus, the causes, symptoms, prescription and medical history for 12 diseases of mind are defined as a higher rank concept of mind counseling ontology. The causes, symptoms, prescription and medical history consist of definition, affective characteristics and related factors, while the potential diagnosis consists of definition and risk factor. This information does specify detailed notions in the diagnosis of diseases of mind, but considering the limitation of not being able to represent all the diseases, this study enables a counseling center to give and use individual definitions of diagnostic terminology of their own. Findings – This study adopted the top-down approach, in which mind counseling ontology defines a higher rank concept, the terminology in diagnosing diseases of mind, based on the list of terms from the counseling record that specifies the abstract concepts of the diagnosis. The bottom-up approach was also incorporated, which defines the diagnostic terms extracted from the counseling record as a subordinate concept of the mind counseling ontology. Thus, the development of the mind counseling ontology involves the combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches to the construction of ontology. Originality/value – This research has significance in that it deals with the fundamental problem of the mind aiming for a true change and healing of it, which is the ultimate purpose of this ontology, especially in the circumstances where research on ontology in diagnosing the diseases of mind is unprecedented.

Over De Functionaliteit Van Conversatie-Analyse

1992 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 102-114
Author(s):  
Ton van der Geest
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Conversational Analysis ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Cognitive Principles ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Working Method

In this article conversational analysis is criticised as to theory and practice. In terms of internal criticism it is argued that 1. there is a lack of theoretical starting points which makes observation less fruitful than possible; 2. the anti-structural attitude, however understandable, is counter-productive as to theoretical development; 3. the conversational analytic working method can be characterised as bottom-up in contrast to the cognitive principles of human mind that is organised top down to a large extent. This bottom-up approach denies the actual differences occurring in the mental activities of both participants and analyst. It, furthermore, neglects the proper questions of research as to how all kinds of information that the conversationalist has to his disposition and may put to usage when communicating, is organised mentally. Therefore, the discussion on rules, strategies, principles, etc. does not take place systematically in conversation analysis; 4. the inductive standpoint and approach of conversation analysis prohibits the formulation of generalizations. Furthermore, there is no methodology available to deal with deductive aspects of investigation; 5. the above discussed characteristics of conversational analysis lead to serious method-ological problems for the investigation of the human discourse capacity. As far as the external criticism of conversational analysis is concerned, it must be maintained, that conversational analysis isolates itself from other neighbouring disciplines, in such a way that it can but does not profit of related research findings of connected disciplines. Finally it is argued that conversation analysis is hardly interested in (or even ignores) the problem of application of research findings in every day practice.

Reductionism in the philosophy of mind

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Sterelny
Keyword(s):  
Electric Discharge ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Molecular Motion ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Similar Relationship ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Dna Molecule ◽  
The Mind

Reductionism in the philosophy of mind is one of the options available to those who think that humans and the human mind are part of the natural physical world. Reductionists seek to integrate the mind and mental phenomena – fear, pain, anger and the like – with the natural world by showing them to be natural phenomena. Their inspirations are the famous reductions of science: of the heat of gases to molecular motion, of lightning to electric discharge, of the gene to the DNA molecule and the like. Reductionists hope to show a similar relationship between mental kinds and neurophysiological kinds.

Psychology and Culture: Top Down Versus Bottom Up?

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 50 (19) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Cole
Keyword(s):  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up
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